To navigate through the Ribbon, use standard browser navigation keys. To skip between groups, use Ctrl+LEFT or Ctrl+RIGHT. To jump to the first Ribbon tab use Ctrl+[. To jump to the last selected command use Ctrl+]. To activate a command, use Enter.

I'm not sure if they still do it, but I know several years ago, Rutherford paid EVERY teacher some kind of annual bonus for not using any sick/personal days. It was tiered, so those who used none got the most, and those who used 1 or 2 got less. 3 absences resulted in no bonus. This seems like a much fairer method for rewarding perfect or near perfect attendance (while not overly-encouraging people to come to work when they are sick).

As a teacher that had perfect attendance last year, I think positive incentives would inspire more teachers to avoid frequently taking time off. I am lucky enough to have administrators that acknowledged the feat of perfect attendance (and we were ALL lucky enough to have several snow days as 'mental health days'), but knowing my name was in the hat for the attendance lottery the same number of times as others that had taken 3, 4, maybe 10 days that year was a bit discouraging.
If the lottery is the way to go, why not do it more than once a year? How about once a semester, and your name goes into the lottery once for each sick or personal day you earned but didn't take? Or once a year, and your name goes in once for each sick or personal day you earned but didn't take?
Also, I'm not sure if the $500 bonus is still the reward for 2 consecutive years of perfect attendance, but that seems like a farfetched goal to physically be able to achieve. How many people have actually gotten that bonus in the last few years? That would be an interesting number to know.
Also, I do like the idea of being able to "cash in" sick days, especially for those teachers that have spent decades in the school system and are looking towards retirement. What happens to those days if a teacher retires and has a few hundred of them? Their time earned should not just disappear.

I suggest reinstituting the lottery from last year except make it permanent and for every nine weeks. I don't remember the exact numbers but it seems like the savings were in the hundreds of thousands of dollars saved with an expense of $15,000.

Please share your ideas and thoughts on how to minimize unnecessary employee absenteeism. We certainly don't want employees to come to work sick, but we need healthy employees to show up for work on a daily basis. We spent $253,570.00 in the month of February for substitute teachers. Imagine the positive things we could do to support learning in our county if we saved half of that money. I am not being critical or judgemental, just looking for a positive way to find a solution. Your input is critical to this process.